X-Ray Computed Tomographic Investigation of High Pressure Die Castings

The porosities and intermetallic phases in a high pressure die cast Al-Mg-Si-Mn alloy was investigated using 3D X-ray computed tomography with different scanning resolutions. The experimental results demonstrated the porosity level and phase detection of dependency upon voxel sizes. The porosity levels were 0.4, 0.5 and 0.8% and the intermetallic phases were 0.3, 0.4 and 0.6% when the same casting sample was scanned at 15 mu m/vox, 7.2 mu m/vox and 2.1 mu m/vox, respectively. However, the structural parameters should be assessed to determine the necessary and/or possible image quality, weighing factors such as scan time, field of view, and voxel sizes.